When I was first assigned to Resurrection Parish, one of the charges I was given was to improve the Religious Education program here. As I was told by the Diocese, “it is one of the worse programs in the Diocese.” Even the Bishop made a point of telling me (when I was in the hospital), that he felt that the religious education program needed significant improvement.

That first year, in addition to the shifting of the program from Holy Cross High School to our parish center, I directed Ms. Brooks to give the Assessment of Catholic Education (ACRE) to our 5^thand 8^thgrade students at the end of the year. As the name indicates, the ACRE is a national, standardized test of content areas that the USCCB says that all religious education programs (including Catholic schools) must cover. The results that first year confirmed what the Diocese told me, our religious education program was subpar. The ACRE gives three classifications of how students did: Outstanding, Proficient, and Needs Improvement. None of our students were classified Outstanding, less than 25% were at the Proficient level. Over 75% were classified Needs Improvement. Things did not improve the next year.

Then I hired Rich Scanlon as the Director of Faith Formation, and we changed the curriculum of our religious education program. The ACRE results at the end of the year was almost the reverse; about 10% of our students were at the Outstanding level, over 65% were at the Proficient level, and less than 25% were at the Needs Improvement level.

We recently received the results of this years ACRE exam, so the second year of new curriculum. Our 5^thgraders continue to do very well: 8% at Outstanding, 67% at Proficient, and 25% at Needs Improvement. In comparison to the National Average for other Parish Religious Education programs, our students are doing about 10 percentile points better than the National Average. Our 8^thgraders, who had spent most of there religious education under the old curriculum, did not do as well: 27% Proficient, 73% Needs Improvement.

While we still need to make some improvements, overall I know that our program is going in the correct direction. Rich and the many wonderful volunteer catechists are making the difference. There will be a small change in the staffing next year, but it will not effect the program in terms of curriculum and when we hold Religious Education. Starting July 1, Rich Scanlon will no longer be full-time at Resurrection Parish. Oh, he will still be here, but we will be sharing him with Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Maple Shade. Over the course of next year, parents and catechists from both parishes will work with Rich so that for the Fall of 2020 both parishes will use the same curriculum.

I am mentioning all this because it has been brought to my attention that on the Delran Parents Group on Facebook, there has been a lot of complaining about our religious education program, mostly that it is too hard because the students have the online component; so about an hour of homework. Of course many of those complaining do not come to Mass most Sundays, so they will not be reading this (unless you share it with them), but such complaints are groundless, and arise more out of parents not taking their responsibility of being the first teachers of the Faith to their children seriously. That is what parents vow, before God, to do for their children at baptism. On Facebook there are calls to go to other religious education programs because they are “easier.” I know that right now, ours is the only program in the area that uses the ACRE to assess how we are doing. 

The Director of Catechesis for the Diocese has taken notice. She is considering having all religious education programs in the Diocese take the ACRE. She calls Rich one of the best DREs in the Diocese, and that our program is going in the direction that the Diocese wants all religious education programs to be going; more parent involvement and more accountability that content is being learned.

I am proud of the progress we have made in our Religious Education Program has made in the past two years, and I thank Rich and all the volunteers in the program for all the hard work they continue to do. They are doing a fantastic job. Everyone in the parish should be proud of what we are doing, but if you are one of the complainers, know that we are happy to listen to your opinion and suggestions, if offered respectfully to us and not via Facebook. However, overall we are going to continue in the direction we are going – to make disciples of Jesus Christ.